Inelegant
by ShadowWolf203027
Summary: Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against divine beauty in life, is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours.. - Percy Bysse Shelley: The State has taken Judy's mother, and the only way to get her back is to walk razors edge in a war torn Zootopia, between deceit, voracious hunger and dark passions.


_May 8__th__ 2017 2:34am_

"Praise the State" the radio host said as he concluded the evening news. It was half past eight and Lorrie's shift was almost over. It was a meager job for a big-cat who was expected to be in a position of power or authority. Lorie scoffed at the idea. She had lost three digits on her left paw, was deaf on the same side, and nearly blind in that eye. _Roont_. As her _Madre_ would've said. Worthless. D_espreciable. _The glass she was washing shattered as she pushed her paw into it. The shards glided across her black fur and splashed into the soapy water with a dull Puma took a slow breath, paws still frozen holding the remnants of the glass. Then, slowly, Lorrie set it and the rag to the side. She released her breath quickly. _ Calm. Don't lose it. Calm._ Repetition muted the anger, and with composure came clarity. She heard the tick tick tick of paws on tiles, followed by the dull thump of merch' being placed on the counter and a sigh. "Just a minute." She glared at the dish water and dried her paws, then tossed the towel over her shoulder and walked out of the kitchen. "Did you find what you need?"

"Yeah." All she could see was two black tipped ears barely taller than the counter. A bunny.

"Anything else?" She leaned on the counter, arms crossed.

"Fifteen on three, please." The buck raised up on his toes and placed a twenty beside the two soda's that sat there. Lorrie took the money and made him change.

"Praise the State." She smiled politely, but inside she was baring her fangs in a cheshire grin.

"Fuck the State, cat."

Lorrie snarled, but let the pest go. He wasn't worth her job. She'd lost most use of her paw, her hearing, and her sight in the war, all thanks to vermin like him and that Sheep. Capital 'S Sheep. The one who called herself a Protector of the Many. But her head rolled down the steps of what had been the ZPD only a year ago if that. And now.

_Praise the State._ Lorrie thought as she stepped back into the kitchen.

* * *

_May 7th 2017 11:01 pm_

A hundred and thirty miles to the north, directly along the same interstate the bunny was driving was a massive sprawling city. Easily 800 square miles surrounding a central ridge-line – The Spine – and broken into several hundred-square-mile Districts each its own biosphere. Zootopia was the summit of mammalian civilization. The technology of the Climate Control Barriers had taken nearly four decades of research and development to make possible, and still every year or so improvements were made. Perfect efficiency was far off, well over the horizon, but progress was progress. The city had, just in the last five years, extinguished the last of the coal power-plants helping to maintain the ridiculous energy needs of 15 million residents and businesses. And as the last of the heat within those furnaces died off the city rejoiced.

Three juxtaposed climates bordered each other on the north eastern and north side of the Spine. The southern most was the Tundra district, boxed in by four Climate Control Barriers. Each Barrier having 8 titanic cooling units. And were does all that exhaust go? The adjacent northern district; the Desert. And the final to the west? The Rainforest.

But it is the first that we will focus on. For here is where our story truly starts.

…

…

The dark and wet subway tunnel was home to Jennifer Vix. Well, close. Its like that familiar road just beyond your front yard. You know every rise and fall bigger than a few inches. This was her Road. And it led Home. Her haven. Three hundred odd fox-steps down the tunnel, where the wall bent outward, and through the jagged hole that outward bend foretold. She emerged into an abandoned adjacent tunnel, a relic of days long passed. A thick bed of troglobitic moss softened her steps to perfect silence. Jenny stopped and carefully ghosted her hind-paw forward until she found a smooth stone laid on the path. Then she found the next and so on. The fox followed the winding path from one side of the tunnel to the next in perfect darkness as it curved and twisted it's way toward Haven. It was a thrill. One false step and... well she wouldn't even know the false step had been made. Probably wouldn't even register the sound it'd make. Just one second walking.

The next your busy not existing.

The tunnel ended with a twisted rebar and concrete collapse. Jenny felt along the closest wall until she found a hole where a brick had been removed at about waist height and began to dislodge and set aside enough to make a hole for her to climb through. She would usually replace the bricks but she wouldn't be here long. The night was still young and the blood in her veins carried an unusual excitement. Something was about to happen, she could feel it.

She came out into a large cavern lit by burning oil drums and filled with a sea of mammals, mostly predators, who all turned to watch her enter. She brushed the closest mammals shoulder, a cheetah, with her claws as she passed. "Welcome home, Mother." His dark eyes sparkled, and his teeth shone brightly as he smiled to Jen.

"Good to be home."

She passed more mammals and received more greetings. Some called her 'Mother' some 'Vixen'. Her favorite though was what a small group of bats labeled her.

"Skolli." They bowed their heads, and never met her eyes. She didn't know what the word meant, but she was sure it was something bad. Accusing.

She was also sure that somehow, those bats knew where her late night walks took her. She smiled, baring all her teeth. "Children. It's good to see you all." Jennifer raised her voice so that it carried throughout the cave. "Each and every one." She met as many eyes as she could. "We are the damned."

Several dozens of voices spoke as one. "Yet we are saved." All their eyes shined with what she could only assume was hope. A sense of belonging.

"We are alone."

"Yet we are family."

"And family protects it's own."

"Before all others." She finished the last verse with them and grinned, genuinely happy to be here. With her flock. Her coven.

After the familiar greeting time flew as she handed out orders to volunteers. Some would procure food, whatever the means. Some would gather water and purify it. A handful would clean their common areas and take care of the moderate amount of elderly they lived with, while another would watch the kits and cubs that darted around. A few cooked. A few less served the food. Jen smiled at them as they milled about, eager to please the one who had brought them here. Time slowed as she took in the scene around her. The cheetah she had caressed when she arrived was dropping a spoonful of a thick and hearty soup into a weasel kit's waiting bowl. The wretched thing was stretching her bowl as high as she could manage towards the cheetah, eager to fill her stomach. The bats were flying out the top of the tunnel into a 'chimney' that let out in a park only a few hundred feet above them. Jen noted the satchels – real leather, made from tanned hides – strapped onto their backs and her teeth shown as her smile widened. The fox watched a pack of wolves exit through the tunnel she had entered from. One was missing his entire left arm and nearly all the fur on that side of his chest. She had no clue what had happened to the canid, but she was sure it would have been agonizing.

She turned so suddenly she nearly tripped over a wolf pup. She scooped him up in the same motion and turned so that her back collided with the wall. It stung and her smile dropped. The pups eyes were wide and he started stuttering an apology but Jen shushed him "Quiet now, Little One. No apologies." She snuggled her snout around his ear, eliciting a laugh. With that she let him down, smile firmly back in place. Jen patted his head affectionately. "Run along and be more careful." As he ran off Jens smile dropped and she bolted for her room. Her old toys would have to do for now, she decided. She was pent up and gods she just needed to take it out on something.

* * *

_Same Time:_

A rainbow of spots exploded across the doe's eyes and she felt something crunch. The world was blurred with tears. Her ears rang, it was all she could do to turn her head and watch through the wolves legs as he stood over her. "Listen to your mother little bunny." Bonnie was covering her mouth, tears soaking her cheeks and her eyes locked on Judy's as they dragged her away. The wolf snarled and turned. Nothing. She couldn't do anything as the doors slammed and the van turned and started down the dusty road.

Hands were grasping at Judy's shoulders, urging her to sit up. She did, eyes still locked on the shrinking black box and the sickly yellow trail following it. "They took her." She tasted blood. _Is my nose bleeding_? Judy brought a paw to it and it came away soaked scarlet.

"We knew this could happen one day sis." Eph knelt next to her, and began gently prodding at her nose. "Be happy it wasn't you or someone younger." Judy slapped him. Then covered her mouth both shocked at her own actions and furious with what her brother said. The much lighter colored buck just sighed, stood, and stepped away. He drew in a breath and turned back to her, a deep frown and anger burning in his eyes. "Alright." He nodded to himself without looking at her, and clenched his paws a few times in staccato rhythm. "Ill let you have that one Judy. But I'm still glad it was her and not… well." Eph looked out over the quiet golden fields and sighed again.

Judy slowly stood, working herself upright, her muzzle was so warm, and it throbbed with every heartbeat. No pain yet. That would come though. "Ice." Eph hurried ahead of her as she started toward the house. In her mind she could still see her mothers eyes. Stay down, hun. They said, and yet they held all the 'I love yous' she would ever need. Because they both knew.

Bonnie wasn't coming back.

Tears threatened to spill again but she held them. Anger simmered beneath her fur, and she would rather deep dive into it than let the sadness pull her under. She knew where the wolves were from, where they were going. She heard about those places. The very thought of what her mother faced turned her stomach and she had to lean against the porches support beams to avoid falling to her knees. And Bonnie just went with them, didn't fight, didn't try to run. Why? Why not Judy instead? She was young, strong, and most importantly the family didn't need her. Sure she'd be missed, she wasn't an outcast, but the family depended on their matriarch. It would've been so simple. Just a 'take my daughter instead'. But no, her mother was too selfless for that.

Was that where Judy got it? She sighed. Eph brought a paper towel wrapped bag of ice out to her and whe she didn't take it he eased it against her snout. He guided her paw to it with a strange look pulling his brows together. "Judy?" But Judy was a hundred miles away. Her thoughts and a half formed plan taking her to a much different place.

A city far far to the north.

Zootopia.

…

…

Her canvas duffel was half-packed before Stu finally got through the fog. "-you cant. They WILL kill you Judy. Please?" She'd like to think it was his voice that made her turn to him. The broken little sounds he was trying to hide but couldn't. Her father was falling apart. But...

How could he tell her not to go? "I can. I will." The gray doe said as though it were the simplest thing, more so than the sun rising, or moon waning.

"And what?" He broke away from the door frame briskly, covering the space between them all the while sputtering his panic. "T-t-take her back? Judy she's g-" He squeaked and tried to hide it with a cough.

"Dad dont-"

He lunged at her, lightning quick. Judy honestly had no clue he could move like that. "I'm not losing you too." Stu yelled, his trembling finger all but touching her broken nose. The snarl he wore nearly matched the Preds that stole her mother. Her ears drooped.

Then what? Sit back and mourn for her? Let the filthy beasts ride out of town and back to the city? She heard about the places they took prey. Perpetual maternity wards where they were bred and the kits harvested as livestock. How could her father let his wife, her mother, go knowing that was what awaited her. It disgusted Judy to the point she couldn't even look at him. After a breathe she whispered gently. "You may not have the balls to get mom back from those savages, but I do."

Stu sneered. "You cant go alone Judes. I-"

"She's not going alone." Stu turned to his oldest son as he entered the room. The buck carried a light gray dufflebag bulging with hastily packed clothes in one hand and a black fedora in the other. A coat was draped over the fedora arm. "You ready?"

Judy crushed down the emotion that rose into her throat. She grabbed another shirt and tossed it into the canvas bag and knotted it. "Yeah."

Her father didn't move, just stared blankly at her mattress. She lay a paw on his shoulder only to have him jerk away. She shot Eph a pleading look but he only turned and started out the door. Judy followed him, but paused at the doorway. "We will be back, dad. We'll get mom." She rushed to the stairs to escape the weight of his choking sobs.

Outside Eph already had their old rust-blue truck rumbling; choking on the gas really, but running none the less. Judy popped the door open and tossed her bag in then climbed in after it, and finally settled the canvas bag onto her lap. Her hand reached for the belt but stopped short and returned to rest on her pack, the belts didn't latch when you pulled them, useless, as far as she was concerned.

Eph threw it in gear and gassed it without any care for the old machine. It was a tool he knew he could be rough with. Judy laid her head back, her body wanted to rest. The emotional strain of watching her mother dragged off by wolves sucked all the life from her. She didn't close her eyes though, just watched the sagging cloth of the ceiling as though it weren't there. As though she could see for miles and miles into the darkening sky.

_Same time: Tundra District_

Nicolas Wilde stood on the penthouse balcony of the Snow Pillow hotel puffing on a large cigar and staring blindly at the city around him. Fat white snowflakes fall around the fox and a freezing, biting wind ruffles his bare chest. Even through the wind he could hear the shifting of cloth-on-fur behind him.

"You're gonna catch a cold hun."

Nick turned his head to glance back at his latest conquest and smiled. "Much too healthy for that." He took a quick drag from his cigar, snuffed it on the banister and flicked it over the edge. He turned to her fully and ushered them back inside, picking her up halfway to the bed, smothering her neck with soft bites even as her legs wrapped around him. They ended up on the ground, and finishing their dance there. _A shame, _Wilde thought later as he lay in a half-awake delirium, _that bed is soft as hell. _

Thoughts came and went. _Falling like snow. _In that they were noticed, and studied for a moment, then forgotten as they hit the ground with the rest. A year and a half had passed since joining the State's army, and Wilde's life had flipped on it's head. A factory worker with several – side jobs, they're not illegal in any sense – other forms of income turned militant soldier, turned sergeant, turned Captain-of-Special-Operations-in-Counter-Terrorism because fuck you LT. He could see the muzzle of a black wolf snarling at him, smell the blood on his breath as he was called every name in the book and more. _Why are you here Wilde?_

_To hear you're lovely voice Sir! "_To help my mother" He only whispered the words, but they caused the red-furred vixen beside him to shift a little closer in her sleep.

He got a beating for that comment, but he kept doing it, much to his classes dismay.

Another snowflake hits the ground and his breathing changes. Deeper and slower but not quite relaxed enough to sleep. _You don't actually fight do you? _His mother asked him one evening as she pushed around the food on her plate. A nurse stood close by tapping away on her phone and paying no attention to them what-so-ever. Nick laid a paw on her leg and smiled and lied through his teeth as images of predators being shredded by a heavy machine gun played in his head. _No, silly. I'm strictly a reserve force. Hell if I was on the front lines you know I'd charm those Grazers right out of their clothes, and no one wants to fight naked mammals. _She laughed.

Nick laughed.

The nurse – a doe – gritted her teeth and said nothing, staring at her screen saver with the single mindedness of someone trying to disassociate with the world.

Again the memory slips to the ground and blurs. Nick doesn't even feel sleep overtake him.


End file.
